You know that feeling. Everyone does. But that certain feeling, when your gut is being pulled and twisted. And your chest ****** dry. Your eyes are sunken into your skull and your limbs made of glass. Dust in your mouth and your ears refuse to let in a single sound. Paralyzed. Your brain and your body. Get the hell away from me. No, stay! The first one is for everyone else the second is for me. Do I really mean that much? You’re smart, you tell me. Keep talking, keep thinking. That’s what’s keeping you here. No don’t talk. The secret will slip and then you’ll trip and fall. Just think, think, and think. About what? About anything of course! But there’s one thing that you can’t stop thinking about. Now keep it to yourself. Because, shh, we can’t let the secret slip, now can we? Cold air rushing in, gripping and tearing at the skin. You remember don’t you? Breathe, you have to, don’t stop breathing. Magnificent we got what we needed. No there’s more. But what? It’s not over so quiet! I don’t know what but there’s more. Tick, tock, tick, tock. It’s coming, wait for it. Time is our enemy. **** it, beat the time. You understand, don’t you? No, of course you do. What a stupid question. Stupid questions. And this is all happening right here, right now, right then, right where? Right here that’s where! Right then that’s now! Now do you understand? Yes, of course. Just what I thought, just what we think. What we think. Are we one? We’re one. Us. Him. Her. Them. They. All plurals, all together yet apart. Wait, what? I DON’T KNOW! Don’t ask me! I didn’t do this you did! I know I did but why didn’t you stop me! Save it! Please, I’m begging. Who cares? They do. Who does? No one does. Really? That’s what I thought what we thought. You have no idea what you’re doing do you? Of course I do. Why do you say that? Because I know you. Who doesn’t? I don’t. Yes you do. Never together always apart. What was that? What was what? You tell me you’re the one paying attention! To what!? To everything! I talk to you, you are supposed to talk to me back! It’s how this works. Make sense! Tick, tock, tick, tock. It’s closer! You can stop it! Just finish it! Cut it. What it? That it? What’s it?! It’s it! It’s over. What is? It. Don’t you understand? By now I don’t really expect you to. It is everything. It is everyone. It is anything, something, that thing. What thing? That thing! Don’t you get it now? Tick, tock, tick, tock. Spin around the clock. Life’s a clock. Tick, tock, tick, tock. When the bell rings. What happens then? What happens when? Secret, slipping. Flesh, peeling. I DON’T KNOW! Stop. STOP ALL OF THIS! Shh. Do you hear that? Hear what? I said shut up. Do you hear it? Exactly, do you hear, “it.” It is nothing. It is everything. It is time. It is our ally and our enemy. Our destruction and our life. When your gut is being pulled and twisted, your chest ****** dry, eyes sink into the back of your skull, dust, no sound, paralyzed. Tick, tock, tick, tock. It’s only a matter of time. Your life spins around and around. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Your life on a clock.